Car-coupling.



No. 786,169. I PATENTED MAR. 28, 1905. S. R. SMITH.

GAR COUPLING. APPLIOATION FILED'JULY 25. 1:;04.

31w, t d. F),

UNITED STATES Patented March 28, 1905.

SIM R. SMITH, OF ASHVILLE, ALABAMA CAR-COUPLING.

SPECIFICATION formingpart of Letters Patent No. 786,169, dated March 28,1905.

Application filed July 25, 1904. Serial No, 218,082.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that 1, SIM B. SMITH, a citizen of the United States,residing at Ashville, in the county of St. Clair, State of Alabama, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Car-Couplers; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and eX- actdescription of the invention, such as will enable others skilled in theart to which it appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to car-couplers, and has for its object toprovide a coupler which will operate automatically and which may beoperated to uncouple the cars without the necessity of passing betweenthe cars.

A further object is to provide a coupler which will be simple ofconstruction and which will be so arranged that the parts subjected towear may be removed for the substitution of new parts therefor.

Other objects and advantages will be apparent from the followingdescription, and it will be understood that modifications of thespecific construction shown may be made and any suitable materials maybe used without departing from the spirit of the invention.

In the drawings forming a portion of this specification, and in whichlike numerals of reference indicate similar parts in the several views,Figure 1 is a side elevation of the present invention and showing thedraw-bar to which it is attached. Fig. 2 is a longitudinal section ofFig. 1.

Referring now to the drawings, the present invention comprises a head 5,including two sections 6 and 7, having coinciding recesses 8 and 9 intheir meeting faces, which extend from end to end thereof to form apassage 10 through the head, and in the rearward end of this passagethere is engaged a draw-bar 11 of the car to which the coupler isattached, the draw-bar being held in such position by bolts 12, whichare passed through alining passages 13 in the sections 6 and 7 and thedraw-bar 11, these bolts serving also to hold the two sections together.

At the forward end of the head 5 the passage 10 is flared, and in thesection'6 of the head there is formed a recess 14, which communicateswith the passage 10. Pivoted in the recess 14 is a latch 15, which ismovable into the recess, but is held normally projected therefrom and inengagement with the section 7 by means of a helical spring 16, which issecured at one end to the latch and bears at its remaining end againstthe inner wall of the recess 14:. Formed through this inner wall of therecess 14: and communicating with the outer face of the section 6 is aperforation 17, through which passes a rod 18, engaged with the freerearward end of the latch 15, this latch being pivoted at its forwardend, as shown, and this rod 18 is pivoted at its outer end to a crank19, journaled upon the end of the car and provided with hand-levers 20at its ends, whichlie at the sides of the car. By means of thehand-lever the crank 19 is operable to move the latch 15 out ofengagement with the section 7 through the medium of the rod 18, and itwill be understood that this operation may be performed without passingbetween the cars.

The pin 21, upon which the latch 15 is pivoted, is removably engaged ina passage 22, formed through the section 6 of the head, and when it isdesired to remove the latch this pin may be removed from the passage,and the bolts 12 may be removed from the perforations 18 to permit thesections 6 and 7 to be separated, so that the latch 15 may be removedfrom the recess 14.

In connection with the coupler just described there is employed theusual link 23, which may be disposed with its end in the open end of thepassage 10, which is flared, as mentioned above, to facilitate theintroduction of the link thereinto, and this link may have its endengaged with the latch 15 to move the latter upon its pivot out ofengagement with the section 7 until the end of the link has passedbeyond the latch, when the latter will be moved by the spring 16 againinto engagement with the section 7 to prevent withdrawal of the link.When it is desired to remove the link from the coupler, the crank 19 isoperated as described above.

\Vhat is claimed is- I 1. The combination with a draw-bar, of acar-coupler comprising two separable sections having coinciding recessesin their meeting faces, one of said sect-ions having a recesscommunicating with its first-mentioned recess, a latch reinovablypivoted in the second-named recess and movable thereinto, said latchbeing arranged for engagement by a link disposed in the first-namedrecesses, means for holding the latch yieldably in position to engagethe link, and means for holding the two sections together, and forholding the coupler to the draw-bar.

2. As an article of manufacture, a car-coupler comprising two sections,each of said sections having a longitudinal recess in one of its facesextending from end to end thereof, one of said sections having alongitudinal recess communicating with the horizontal wall of itsfirst-named recess, said sections being disposed one against the otherand with their first-named recesses in communication with each other, alatch disposed in the seconcnamed recess, a spring disposed between thelatch and horizontal wall of the secondnamed recess to hold the latchyieldably in position to engage a link disposed in the first-namedrecesses, and a link connected With the latch and passed through one ofthe sections and arranged for movement to move the latch against theaction of the spring, said sections having alining vertical passagestherethrough for the reception of bolts to hold the two sectionstogether, and to hold the sections in engagement with a draw-bar.

In testimony whereof I aflix my signature in presence of two witnesses.

SIM B. SMITH. Witnesses:

DAVID 00D, PIOKENS PEARSON.

